Drug use and perceived social support in a sexual minority.

Aim: To evaluate the perception of social support in a sexual minority and to associate it with the risk of drug addiction.

Method: Cross-sectional study, with 254 self-declared gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transsexual participants in the city of Fortaleza, between October and December 2019. Data analyzed by descriptive statistics and likelihood ratio tests.

Factors associated with performing activities of daily living in women after suffering a stroke.

Objective: To associate sociodemographic variables and risk factors for stroke to the degree of dependence for performing the activities of daily living of women of childbearing age after suffering a stroke.

Method: A prospective and analytical longitudinal study conducted in three public hospitals in Fortaleza, CE, Brazil. The Modified Barthel Index was used at the time of attending the unit and 3 months after the stroke to assess the degree of disability in the performance of activities of daily living.

Hypercaloric diet modulates effects of chronic stress: a behavioral and biometric study on rats.

Obesity is a chronic disease that has been associated with chronic stress and hypercaloric diet (HD) consumption. Increased ingestion of food containing sugar and fat ingredients (comfort food) is proposed to "compensate" chronic stress effects. However, this eating habit may increase body fat depositions leading to obesity.

Resveratrol Regulates the Quiescence-Like Induction of Activated Stellate Cells by Modulating the PPARγ/SIRT1 Ratio.

The activation of hepatic stellate cell (HSC), from a quiescent cell featuring cytoplasmic lipid droplets to a proliferative myofibroblast, plays an important role in liver fibrosis development. The GRX line is an activated HSC model that can be induced by all-trans-retinol to accumulate lipid droplets. Resveratrol is known for activating Sirtuin1 (SIRT1), a NAD(+)-dependent deacetylase that suppresses the activity of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), an important adipogenic transcription factor involved in the quiescence maintenance of HSC.

Melatonin analgesia is associated with improvement of the descending endogenous pain-modulating system in fibromyalgia: a phase II, randomized, double-dummy, controlled trial.

Background: Central disinhibition is a mechanism involved in the physiopathology of fibromyalgia. Melatonin can improve sleep quality, pain and pain threshold. We hypothesized that treatment with melatonin alone or in combination with amitriptyline would be superior to amitriptyline alone in modifying the endogenous pain-modulating system (PMS) as quantified by conditional pain modulation (CPM), and this change in CPM could be associated with serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Melatonin treatment entrains the rest-activity circadian rhythm in rats with chronic inflammation.

We assessed the therapeutic effect of exogenous melatonin (MEL), dexamethasone (DEXA), and a combination of both on nociceptive response induced by chronic inflammation and on the rest-activity circadian rhythm in rats. A total of 64 animals were randomly divided into eight groups of eight rats each: one control group and seven groups with complete Freund's adjuvant-inflamed animals (CFA; injection into the footpad). One of the CFA-inflamed groups did not receive any treatment; the other six were treated with melatonin (MEL), dexamethasone (DEXA), melatonin plus dexamethasone (MELDEXA), and their respective vehicles.

Resveratrol induces pro-oxidant effects and time-dependent resistance to cytotoxicity in activated hepatic stellate cells.

Resveratrol (RSV) is known for its antioxidant properties; however, this compound has been proposed to have cytotoxic and pro-oxidant effects depending on its concentration and time of exposure. We previously reported the cell cycle arrest effect of low doses of RSV in GRX cells, an activated hepatic stellate cell model. Here, we evaluated the effects of RSV treatment (0.

Paraspinal stimulation combined with trigger point needling and needle rotation for the treatment of myofascial pain: a randomized sham-controlled clinical trial.

Background: There are different types and parameters of dry needling (DN) that can affect its efficacy in the treatment of pain that have not been assessed properly.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that either multiple deep intramuscular stimulation therapy multiple deep intramuscular stimulation therapy (MDIMST) or TrP lidocaine injection (LTrP-I) is more effective than a placebo-sham for the treatment of myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) and that MDIMST is more effective than LTrP-I for improving pain relief, sleep quality, and the physical and mental state of the patient.

Methods: Seventy-eight females aged 20 to 40 who were limited in their ability to perform active and routine activities due to MPS in the previous 3 months were recruited.

Efficacy of melatonin in the treatment of endometriosis: a phase II, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Endometriosis-associated chronic pelvic pain (EACPP) presents with an intense inflammatory reaction. Melatonin has emerged as an important analgesic, antioxidant, and antiinflammatory agent. This trial investigates the effects of melatonin compared with a placebo on EACPP, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) level, and sleep quality.

Neurobiological effects of transcranial direct current stimulation: a review.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that is affordable and easy to operate compared to other neuromodulation techniques. Anodal stimulation increases cortical excitability, while the cathodal stimulation decreases it. Although tDCS is a promising treatment approach for chronic pain as well as for neuropsychiatric diseases and other neurological disorders, several complex neurobiological mechanisms that are not well understood are involved in its effect.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the pain catastrophizing scale.

Objective: Catastrophizing is a maladaptive response to pain and is one of the factors that contribute to the chronicity of some pain syndromes. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) assists both treatment planning and outcome assessment. Its use is limited in Portuguese-speaking countries because of the lack of a validated translated version.

BDNF as an effect modifier for gender effects on pain thresholds in healthy subjects.

BDNF is an important marker of neuronal plasticity. It has also been associated with pain processing. Increased BDNF levels are observed in chronic pain syndromes.

Resveratrol inhibits cell growth by inducing cell cycle arrest in activated hepatic stellate cells.

Resveratrol (RSV) exerts anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic actions in different cell lines. Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are major fibrogenic cell types that contribute to collagen accumulation during chronic liver disease. In the present study, the inhibitory effects of RSV on cell proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis were evaluated in the mouse hepatic stellate cell line GRX.

[Modeling of dengue incidence in Paraíba State, Brazil, using distributed lag models].

The literature provides several statistical models to explain dengue incidence. However, there is disagreement as to the real contribution of models based on climate factors or models based on relative variables to combat the vector, because their variability fails to provide a satisfactory statistical explanation for the behavior of dengue incidence. Distributed lag models (DLM) posit that a variable response Y will be explained by the presence of a variable X at the same moment in time t and in the previous moments (t-1, .